


Chrysalis, Part II

by silverr



Category: Basara (manga)
Genre: Castration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-31
Updated: 2010-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:46:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverr/pseuds/silverr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To become a butterfly, he will have to survive metamorphosis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chrysalis, Part II

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: _Basara ___is copyright Yumi Tamura, Flower Comics and KSS. No infringement or disrespect of the intellectual property rights held by the owners of existing copyrights in _Basara_ or its derivative works is intended by this non-profit, noncommercial amateur fan fiction.

.

.

"I thought we could be friends, Number 31," the solemn, well-dressed boy had said. "We're the same age. You're strong and smart. When I create the new era, I'll free all the slaves, and I want you by my side."

.

He hadn't meant to kiss him, wouldn't have even been there but that he had been allowed to fetch water to clean his stall. The bright light and the colors of the sky and the scent from the unseen garden had disoriented him, and as he tried to find his way back he saw the Master's son sleeping under a tree, and something about the way the ragged scraps of leaf-shade and sun danced over the sleeping boy's face drew him near, and he bent to look closer, to smell the clean skin …

"Get away from him, you disgusting slave!"

He pulled at the hands squeezing his throat.

"Father! Stop it! You're hurting him!"

" _Shido!_ " the Master said, "He did filthy things to you. Can you see now why it is pointless to treat them with kindness?"

He wanted to protest, but his breath had been taken away by the black veil that had covered the gray sky, the gray tree, and the worried gray boy's face.

.

It is dark, wherever he is. His clothes are gone, and he is stretched out, tied to rough wooden boards in the shape of an X. He lifts his head, tries to open his eyes, and realizes that he is blindfolded. There is a stick in his mouth, wrapped with a wet rag. The bitter taste of it makes him gag.

"He's awake. I'll get ready."

He hears the scrape of boots coming close; a moment later he can smell the Master's breath. "Do you know what they do to bulls and stallions that get out of hand?"

There's a feel of cold metal, a blade pressed flat against his thigh, and then it moves, dips down between his legs to lift his sac.

A cold certainty settles in his stomach, and he feels his bladder go, splashing piss on the floor.

"What an animal," the Master says.

"Better he be empty now, before the procedure," the other voice says.

"After all I did for you, Number 31, you repay me by defiling my son." The Master turns the blade, pressing the sharp edge in skin until it draws blood, then flicks something against his anus; the sensation combines with his fear and the pain from the knife to light the spark in his belly. As his flesh swells the pain from the cut becomes searing, but when he tries to lift his body up and away someone tightens the rope tied around his waist, immobilizing him.

"Look at this," the Master says. "This foul, unnatural aberration. Doesn't it make you sick? No wonder I couldn’t find a buyer for it. Might as well just throw it away in the desert, let it shrivel and die."

"Well, I'd still like to take the balls," the other voice says. "You'd be surprised what some people will pay for."

The knife is finally withdrawn. "Do what you want. I can't bear the sight of this thing."

There's the sound of spitting, and of boots walking away. He feels the wet warmth on his cheek for only an instant before his erection is pulled and then tied tightly against his belly. Something is poured on the rag-wrapped stick between his teeth, more of the bitter taste that makes him gag, and then there are some sounds he can't identify.

When the hand grabs his sac and pulls it down he tries to scream.

.

The light is very bright. There are people, women's voices.

"It's so cruel – he's only a child!"

"Untie him, hurry!"

"Oh my god, look at all the _blood._ Is he still alive?"

A weight lifts from his chest, and as someone picks him up and holds him (there's a soft pillow, and flower smells, and then his face cools as he's shaded) a voice asks gently, "What's your name, sweetheart?"

Water trickles on his lips, and he licks at it with swollen tongue until he can speak. "Number 31." He can sense the others moving closer, shading him from the sun.

"Ah, that's not a name," the one holding him says. "I'll tell you what. I've been saving a special name, for just the right person; someone who's beautiful, and graceful, and strong." She has a cool, damp cloth, and when she wipes the crusted sand from his eyes he opens them, squinting at the watery, wavering world, blinking as the colorful forms around him emerge.

"Now you are Ageha," the woman says, and her round face is warm and motherly. "The swallowtail of our butterfly troupe. Someday you will dance on the wind."

"Ageha," he repeats, and smiles.

.

.

_~ The end ~_

.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted for Kink Bingo round 3, card 1, kink 3,1: genital torture
> 
> AN: First: I've said elsewhere that Ageha is my favorite character. He's my favorite not just because he's beautiful, and intelligent, and spirited, and fierce, and graceful, and strong, but because he's all of those things even after enduring a horrific childhood and early puberty. ~ I love Ageha as a character so much because of this, and certainly there's some projection going on, which makes the other key aspect of Ageha's character harder for me to deal with: that for him, sexual pleasure might be impossible without extreme abasement and pain. ~ Although I can accept this intellectually without making a value judgment, it's difficult for me to make the emotional/empathic connection to this aspect of his psyche. I want him to be happy, but I want him in the "sex is fun and sweet and schmoopy and intense-but-caring intimacy" part of the park, even though I know that's not where he belongs. I want him to live happily ever after with droopy-eyed Shirasu, but ... that's not going to happen either, even if the obvious obstacle of what happens in volume 25 is removed.
> 
> Anyhow, the fic was really hard to write, because Ageha makes my heart hurt.
> 
> Second: So, some canon stuff happens in this fic, but a lot of non-canon stuff too, and just so we're clear: _**I am NOT claiming that it's in any way canon that Ageha was castrated. IT IS NOT CANON. Not not not. Do not even make it fanon.**_ It's completely my own invented backstory for him. (If you need to, consider this story an AU/AR.)
> 
> However …
> 
> I think it's plausible. If he was going through puberty at the time that he kissed Shido (and was subsequently left for dead by an enraged Shido Sr.) then, from the (admittedly small amount of) reading I've done, subsequently losing his testes would still have allowed him to have an erection and make love to "the freckled girl" at age 16 (<3 chu~!). Being castrated during puberty also might not have as much of an impact on his muscle mass, body hair, voice, or genitals as it would have had he been castrated in childhood, but it probably still would have had some impact on his height (castration before puberty generally means that the hormones that switch off long bone growth don't get switched off as soon).
> 
> Third: the general idea of this story – the backstory – I've had for years. Kink Bingo forced me to finally write it, though it's connection to the prompt still seems rather tenuous to me. ~ This will likely be one of the fics that goes through a few dozen revisions after it's posted – if for nothing else but fixing the wildly varying tenses – but I anticipate rolling some form of it into Swallowtail someday.
> 
> (01) 31 August 2010


End file.
